Sunday, March 29, 2015

Below is a painting which has been my companion during Lent. I am curious about the cloaked and veiled figure in the foreground. Who is he? Where are you in the painting? Below is a link to a larger version of the painting if you would like to look at it more closely (which I recommend)..

Sunday, March 15, 2015

This is a lovely website with a number different possibilities... Below is a sample from the Arts and Faith through Lent page. If you click on the link below, it will take you to the main Arts and Faith page and from there to the Home Page of Loyola Press. There are meditations for each week in Lent, Holy Week and Easter Day. Check it Out!

Enter into a visual prayer experience this Lent with Arts
& Faith: Lent. Each week we’ll provide a video commentary about a work of
art inspired by the Sunday Scriptures. Use these videos to take a new look at
this season of spiritual renewal through the lens of sacred art.

Commentary is by Daniella Zsupan-Jerome, assistant professor
of liturgy, catechesis, and evangelization at Loyola University New Orleans.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame, a
master’s degree in liturgy from St. John’s University in Collegeville, a
master’s degree in religion and the arts from Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D.
in theology and education from Boston College. Her unique background in faith
and art brings to life a new way of observing Lent and understanding the season
on a more personal level

Monday, March 2, 2015

The following is an excerpt from an essay by the Rev. Dan Heishman, head of the National Association of Episcopal Schools..I appreciate his take on "giving up."We often associate this season of Lent with giving things up—some indulgence, some bad habit—and we often view the activity of giving something up for Lent as an exercise in self-denial. While it certainly can be that, and there can be real value in self-denial, this process also turns out to be an exercise in the much larger task of giving up in life. A small act of giving up turns out to be a testing ground, a spiritual preparation for one of the great surprises of adulthood—just how much we will be about relinquishing things, illusions, or self-destructive activities.I also thought about one of the hardest things for a mature school community (substitute, church family) to accept, that it cannot do all or be all things for all people. Fewer prospects are more difficult for a school (church) to bear than having to consider ways in which it occasionally must give up on the seductive activity of constantly taking on one more project, program, or expectation. As with all forms of giving up, we worry that it is a sign of defeat. (Emphasis mine).One of my favorite writers used to talk about Lent as being “Easter in disguise.” Faced with the sobering task of having to give up on something, we do not in turn face a diminished future. In fact, the process of giving up...is the entry point to a new and much fuller life.